Dragon Age The Veilguard Criticism Thread (formerly Skepticism Thread) [Spoilers]

For me it's more an unsurprising evolution but I guess at least MEA as a spin-off did less damage to the lore and established characters. The new lore just wasn't particularly interesting and they did NOTHING with the colonization theme. But I actually thought the main story was decent enough even if mostly reused themes. If the game had been a streamlined 40h experience like previous titles I think I would have liked it a lot more.
That's why it's so disappointing how DAV sounded like they listened to all the criticism and made an old school non open story focused game, which is everything I wanted. And I guess it is, it's just that the writing has fallen off a cliff so everything else kind of doesn't matter anymore to me. Bad writing=bad RPG to me. I can stomach shit combat and janky gameplay if the storytelling is good.

Spoilers for act one after Darvin "big" stuff


It was extremely underwhelming, and it finally hit me that it seems like Bioware forgot how to direct cutscenes

It's kind of incredible that this is the game where they really push the companions on you, and the game flat out tells you through wack dialogue, almost breaking the fourth wall, to go do companion quests, yet the end results of these companions as characters and their personal quests are just a big ol' meh for the most part.

The entire '' forced to recruit all companions and they never leave no matter what '' concept just doesn't really work, because one of the biggest things about Dragon Age and its companions is that everyone has their favorites and those they hate, and the writing team generally embraces that, giving them a license to kill to create the most divisive companions they are able. So I feel like since companions play such an important role in how the story is told, they really sanitized most of the characters so there's no reason for Rook to genuinely hate someone. Of course, they also made Rook completely compatible with all the characters as well, making Rook a dull protagonist.

I think that's why the entire game is the way it is, sanitized and unproblematic, because actively discussing the ugly sides of Thedas would force the companions to have opinions as well, and that would just showcase how unremarkable and safe all the companions are in the end because ultimately you need all the companions for the story missions, as they are built upon certain characters doing certain things, in cinematic cutscenes. So can't have them NOT be part of the team. And if one of them had divisive opinions you as the player disagreed with.. well why should you be forced to have them in your team? It's not like Veilguard makes a good case of WHY the companions that were written for the Veilguard should or need to be part of your team, so the reasons to have characters you dislike in the team are close to zero. Like, people dislike Vivienne, but she does have knowledge and connections that could be vital when approaching things like Orlais. But what the hell does Taash know that I couldn't find from someone else? Please.

Does the music get better? the only music I've noticed is the music that reminds be of some of the bangers we got from Inquisition. Otherwise, nothing memorable that if it came on my music feed I'd be like, "ooo, some DAV music."

I'm definitely starting to enjoy the game more, and I'm still only in the first act. I found the lack of side quests early on a shock, but I think the writers just wanted to get the team recruited and not risk the 'lost in the Hinterlands' issue from DA: Inquisition, where 50 hours could pass without advancing the plot. More side quests are popping up now and they seem to mostly connect to the overall story too. No silly fetch quests, like in DA 2 and DA:I.

Pron brained tourist back again for one more rant. At this point, my pie in the sky wish is that EA dissolves Bioware before the next ME game goes into production, everyone that worked there finds gainful and satisfying employment working on something wholly original, Microsoft buys all of the former Bioware properties, and they hire really good 3rd party studios to make games with those properties.

Can you imagine? Mass Effect by CD Project Red? Dragon Age by Saber Interactive? Anthem by Remedy? These studios come to mind first because they each obviously haven't forgotten that narrative comes first in a story driven game. Everything else has to cater to the story first. So the stories have to be very good.

The story in DAV is not very good. The dialogue is juvenile and superficial. The tone is noblebright when DA is clearly a grimdark setting. And the plot retcons a significant portion of the lore proceeding it, for almost no tangible advantage.

The current crop of folks at Bioware are talented. There's no question about that. And I empathize with some of the messaging that they want to get across. But between MEA and DAV, they have demonstrated that they obviously don't want to make the kind of games that we want to play.

It's why the stories in those games weren't very good. Mass Effect and Dragon Age just aren't the stories they want to tell. And that comes across in the form of preachy, passionless, and even antagonizing writing.

I hope that they get to make the game that they would be passionate about. I'd buy it no doubt. However I believe that that would be an entirely novel property. In the meantime, forcing those devs to making something that does not cohere with them does everyone a disservice. Devs, publisher, and consumer.

Yep. I was fighting many enemies when all I did was runaround in circles. As I was running, I watched the health bars of the baddies when the companions were attacking. They were doing next to no damage. It reminded me of the squadmates from MEA. Once cooldown was done, the companions went through the drive thru to order a combo meal. That's when they did some damage. This game relies heavily on the combo. After however long running in circles, I finally defeated the enemies. The other thing I thought about, as I ran around in circles, was how much better it would have been if I had 3 companions and be able to control them. 

I blame a significant big part of the ills Cyberpunk had on Sony, and admittedly to a greater degree Microsoft. The cross gen requirements weighed that game down in a big way. Of course, CD Project Red isn't blameless. They could have stood their ground a said to their shareholders that the game just would not run on the older consoles. Waiting for the the current console gen to establish a consumer base would have granted them more dev time too. Hindsight is 20/20. After all is said and done 2077 turned out to be my favorite game so far this console cycle.

How Veilguard handles Southern Thedas (you know the setting for the last 3 games) is a joke and insulting...its some Star Wars Sequel Trilogy shit

The difference is that you can remove the words “Mass Effect” and it’s still an okay game. A 6 or 6.5.
From a writing standpoint alone, Veilguard starts at a 5. And only goes lower the more you delve into it.
As far as the characters go, Drack and Vetra carry the team. The shipmates are good too. Cora’s good when she’s outside of her Asari obsession. The gameplay is arguably the best in the franchise. And the writing is better than Veilguard by a large margin. Ryder can actually yell at his companions and be ruthless at certain points. Rook can encourage multiculturalism.
Hating Andromeda doesn’t take away the fact that it’s still an okay game.